Kerry Nettle
From Freepedia
Kerry Michelle Nettle (born 24 December 1973) is an Australian Senator. She was born in Sydney, New South Wales, attended Presbyterian Ladies' College and was educated at the University of New South Wales, where she obtained a degree in environmental science and was active in student politics. She worked as office coordinator for The Greens (NSW) and then as a youth worker. She joined the Australian Greens in 1998 and was elected to the Australian Senate for New South Wales in November 2001, joining Senator Bob Brown.
As a member of the Green party, Nettle's views stem from a root of environmentalism. Some policies supported by Nettle may be traditionally regarded as being toward the left of the political spectrum but many of her views might also be ahared across a wider spectrum of political viewpoint. Generally, there has been a major shift to the right in Australian politics in recent years with, for example, refugees including children being locked up indefinately without charge or trial in harsh detention environmnents and people who oppose these policies are sometimes labelled as being "left wing", even though several senior members of the government party, including a former prime minister and a former party president have unambiguously refered to the inhumanity of these policies.
Nettle supports the public ownership of certain services that have traditionally been publicly owned in Australia and there are some indications these views have wide community support. [1] [2] These services include some banking, airlines, telecommunications, health and education services and many of these have been partially or fully privatised in Australia over the past two decades. She has described the pursuit of privatisation of previously publicly owned assets as "social theft". [3]
When United States President George W. Bush visited Canberra on 23 October 2003, Nettle and Brown took their opposition to the war in Iraq to the point of interjecting during his address to a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament. They wore signs referring to David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, two Australian citizens currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, following their apprehension by United States forces in either (this is disputed) Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Bush accepted the interjections with good humour, but the Speaker of the House, Neil Andrew, formally "named" Nettle and Brown and they were suspended from the Parliament for 24 hours. Nettle tried to hand Bush a letter from Habib's wife but was stopped by Liberal MPs and Senators who jostled her and prevented her from approaching Bush. Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot reportedly told Nettle to "Fuck off and die."[4]
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Categories: 1973 births | Australian Greens politicians | Australian Senators | People of Sydney | Green politicians
